Our community is definitely in a time of uncertainty. However, it is during these times that the strength of a community is able to shine its brightest as we work together to remain calm and assist our neighbors.
We’ve put together this article as a reference point and public service. If you have any questions about how Covid 19 will affect your legal matters, you will likely find the answer below. If you do not see your particular question answered here, please feel free to email or call us and we will be happy to assist in any way we can!
As events unfold, we will continue to update this article with the latest information.
Thank you for your kind patience and understanding as we move through these unique circumstances.
As of March 21, 2020, all non-essential District Court hearings scheduled in the next 30 days in Las Vegas, Nevada and Clark County, Nevada can be:
We understand that it will be up to each individual judge to determine how to handle hearings in their courtroom. Check with your attorney for more information. If you are representing yourself, please contact (702) 455-4472.
If you have a civil jury trial or non-criminal trial scheduled in the next 30 days in District Court, you should expect that your trial is going to be continued. Check with your attorney.
If you have a loved one who is currently incarcerated, their bail hearing, sentencing hearing, and probation revocation hearing will still go forward until the Court can find an alternative method for having these hearings.
Check with your loved one’s attorney for more information. If your loved one doesn’t have an attorney, please contact (702) 455-4472 or the District Attorney’s Office.
Criminal arraignments will still go on as scheduled.
Civil commitment cases will still move forward as scheduled.
If you have a guardianship hearing, the hearing will still go forward; however, your loved one DOES NOT need to be present and may appear by phone.
TPO hearings including TPO extension hearings will still go forward as scheduled.
Juvenile delinquency cases will still be heard. Check with your child’s attorney for more information or call (702) 455-4472.
Abuse and neglect preliminary protective hearings will go forward as scheduled.
We have not received any additional information about plea hearings, dispositional hearings, review hearing or hearings to terminate parental rights. If you have an abuse and neglect case, call your attorney or your caseworker for more information.
High-risk protective orders will still be heard in the normal course of business.
Civil TPOs and injunction hearings will go forward as scheduled.
Probate cremation petitions will still go forward as planned.
All judges in the Las Vegas District Courts (probate, guardianship, criminal, family, and civil courts) have discretion. Check with your lawyer or the court directly for more information about your specific case.
Henderson Municipal Court has rescheduled all court hearing for the week of March 16, 2020.
We have not received any information about Las Vegas Justice Court, Las Vegas Municipal Court, North Las Vegas Justice Court, Henderson Justice Court and North Las Vegas Municipal. As of this writing, it is our understanding that these courts will continue with business as usual.
If you don’t have a lawyer, please understand that most courts will let you appear by telephone or video conferencing. Again, please call (702) 455-4472 and ask for specific directions for telephone or video appearances.
If your hearing can be continued without significant damage to you or the opposing party, ask about a continuance.
You can check the status of your case in district court from the comfort of your home by clicking here – Clark County Court Case Look Up.
I a loved-one was arrested on a Traffic Violation will be administratively released at the jail and ordered to appear in person at the Customer Service Traffic Counter no sooner than May 15, 2020.
Any person who is arrested for a bench warrant shall be given an OR release and given a 2 week return date to appear at the Community Impact Center at 3740 Royal Crest Street, Las Vegas NV 89119.
Persons out-of-custody with an active bench warrant who appears at the traffic court at the Regional Justice Court, the warrant will be immediately recalled.
If you have a traffic ticket in Justice Court, you can make a payment by going to the Clark County Justice Court Payment Portal.
Effective Monday, March 23, 2020, the Clerk’s Office at the Regional Justice Center and at Family Court will be closed for in-person filing. Filings MUST be completed electronically. If you are unable to file a document electronically, it may be mailed as follows:
District Court Civil/Criminal Division, ATTN: Clerk’s Office, Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Ave, Las Vegas NV 89155
District Court Family Division, ATTN: Clerk’s Office, Family Court, 601 N Pecos Rd, Las Vegas NV 89155
If YOU absolutely MUST go to the Court do not bring friends and family. We want to do all we can to limit risking additional exposure for everyone.
For the next 30 days, you will not be allowed into the Regional Justice Center or Family Court if you have traveled to:
If you reside with or have had close contact with someone who has traveled to a foreign country in the last 14 days, you will not be permitted to enter the Regional Justice Center or the Family Court.
Persons who have been asked by a medical professional to self-quarantine will not be allowed into the Regional Justice Center or Family Court.
If you have been diagnosed with or have had contact with someone who has been diagnosed with Covid 19, you will not be allowed into the courthouse in Las Vegas.
If you have an unexplained cough, fever or shortness of breath, you will not be allowed to enter the courthouse.
Most lawyers can accommodate client meetings by phone or video conferencing. The State Bar of Nevada has instructed that lawyers are not to be open to the public during this time. Need a meeting? Call your lawyer and ask for a video chat or phone conference.
Yes, you still must pay your alimony on time.
Yes, even with Covid 19 you still must pay your child support payments on time.
If you lose your job or get laid off and you have child support or alimony due, you can file a motion to modify your support obligations.
If you MIGHT lose your job or get laid off due to Covid 19 virus, talk to a lawyer about whether it makes sense to file a motion to modify your support obligations.
Hand sanitizer is all over the courthouses. If you have to go to court, use it!
The Clark County School District has cancelled school through April 13, 2020 because of Covid 19. If you have a shared custody arrangement with your ex, you should probably discuss how you will handle visitation.
If you are doing interstate travel for custody with your children, you can drive to Las Vegas to pick up your child.
If a travel restriction is put in place and you have an interstate custody arrangement, talk to your ex about making alternative visitation arrangements.
Don’t plan on a visit from your lawyer if you have a loved one in custody. Most of the jails and prisons are not allowing person to person contact.
If you have a loved one in-custody, do not plan on your loved being transported to court.
Donna’s House and Child Haven have suspended supervised visitation for the time being. If you had supervised visits at either Child Haven or Donna’s House, and you have an attorney, talk to your lawyer about make-up visitation or alternative visits. If you do not have a lawyer, but you have a case worker, call your case worker for more information about visitation. If you are ordered to have supervised visitation at Donna’s House through a non-CPS, family court case, call your co-parent and try to make alternative arrangements for contact with your children during this time.
If you have family mediation scheduled at the Family Mediation Center, you should plan to attend on-line.
In the last week, I’ve taken no less than 5 phone calls asking if parents are still required to exchange their children because of Covid 19. Technically, the answer is YES if you have been court ordered to do so. That being said, we STRONGLY suggest you talk to your co-parent about exchanges and that you establish clear ground rules on social distancing for your children. If you and your co-parent cannot agree, you can file a motion with the Court to ask to change visitation temporarily during this time. If you have questions, talk to a lawyer.
40. Medical Bills Due to Covid 19
If you are accruing medical bills due to Covid 19, they are still community debts until you divorce.
Make sure your estate plan is current and up to date.
If you don’t have an estate plan, like a will or trust, please give us a call as soon as you can to arrange to get something set up.
Make sure you have a medical power of attorney in the event you can’t make decisions for yourself.
If you are a loved one’s guardian, you might want to check with the facility to see what precautions they are taking to protect your loved one. If you need to move your loved one, don’t forget to file a notice of change of address in your guardianship case.
If you have a loved one who is severely impacted and cannot make medical decisions, you should consider applying for guardianship.
You can still file your annulment, guardianship divorce or custody case. It must be done electronically or by mail.
If you want to file write own documents, use the self-help on-line. The Self-Help Centers located in the Family Court and at the Regional Justice Center are closed.
Deadlines for responding to lawsuits have not stopped. If you have been served with a lawsuit in Nevada, you still need to respond within 20 days.
If you have been served with a motion, you still need to respond. You have 14 days to file your opposition and countermotion.
Police will still arrest you if you have an outstanding bench warrant or arrest warrant. If you want to clear your warrants, call an attorney so they can file a motion to quash your warrant.
Do you have a meeting scheduled with your probation officer? You need to keep them unless your probation officer states otherwise.
If you are scheduled for random drug testing as part of a CPS case or criminal matter, you will still need to appear for drug testing unless your judge states otherwise. Failure to take a court-ordered drug test means the judge will assume you are positive.
Are you required to take domestic violence classes or impulse control classes as part of a court case? Check with your provider to see if the classes are going forward. Get documentation from your provider that the classes were postponed or canceled or you were excused.
Can’t pay your court fines because you have been laid off or terminated due to Covid 19? Try to get your case back in front of the judge as soon as possible to explain your situation.
If you have court-ordered community service, verify that community service is still available and moving forward. If community service has been postponed or canceled, get confirmation from the facility or provider in writing.
Do you have a home visit scheduled with CPS? Chances are unless you can provide proof you are positive for COVID 19, it won’t be an excuse if you don’t let them check your house.
If you have a child on juvenile probation, your child will still need to meet their court obligations. This means appointments with probation officers and other requirements.
If you have a lawyer for your court case, check-in regularly. Timelines for court have not stopped, but they might. Your lawyers should keep you up to date on any changes in the Court schedule or changes to timelines for your case.
If you own a business your business license renewal, city licensing, incorporation documents and other government information, is still required to be up to date.
If you are going through a divorce and have an injunction in place, but you need cash quick due to COVID 19, check with your lawyer. Taking loans against a 401(k), or using credit cards in excess to get through this time, could be considered a violation of the injunction.
If you, or someone you know, are worried about quarantining in a home that is not safe, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or call an attorney.
If your child is represented by a CAP attorney, the CAP attorneys cannot travel and will not visit children in schools. If your child wants to meet with their lawyer, contact CAP directly and ask about a meeting.
All proposed orders, requests for orders shortening time, stipulation and orders, or any other document should be emailed to your judge’s court for the judge to review the proposed order and sign it.
The court will no longer accept paper filings unless documents are mailed to the Court. If you don’t want to mail documents to the Court, you can e-file documents with the Court.
Self-represented litigants may obtain help with family law forms and information from the Family Law Self-Help Center:
www.FamilyLawSelfHelpCenter.org
EmaiI: [email protected] org
Telephone: 702-455-1500
Self-represented litigants may obtain help with civil fo1111s, information, eviction and other matters from the Civil Law Self-Help Center:
www.CivilLawSelfHelpCenter.org
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 702-671-3976
If a party is requesting a document be sealed, the party must file a motion to file under seal. The party should file separately the document to be sealed, using the code TSPCA “Temporarily Sealed Pending Court Approval.” Failure to properly submit a motion to seal the document may result in the public electronic filing of the temporarily sealed document.
If your document requires a notarized signature, an original signed document may be required. Otherwise, all requirements for original signatures are suspended. All documents filed with the court may be electronically signed as provided in Nevada Electronic Filing and Conversion Rules, Rule 11 (a). All documents requiring the signature of another person may be electronically signed without original signatures;
however, the party submitting the document must obtain email verification of the other person’s agreement to sign electronically and submit the email with the filed documents.
Please be reminded that if you use someone’s signature improperly you can be subject to sanctions regardless of the Covid 19 pandemic. Civil or criminal penalties could apply for misrepresenting or fraudulently signing a document.
The court has four methods of appearance by alternative means: regular telephone, telephone conference through BlueJeans, videoconference through BlueJean and CourtCall. As CourtCall involves a cost, no party may be required to use CourtCall during this time. Use of BlueJeans is strongly favored given the number of people the system can accommodate, and the compatibility with the court reporting system.
For civil cases, if the judge intends to hear a matter, the judicial department will contact attorneys or self-represented litigants two judicial days before the hearing to determine which method of appearance the party intends to use and gather the appropriate contact information to arrange for the appearance by alternative means.
For criminal cases, all appearances by alternative means by attorneys and out-of-custody defendants will be through BlueJeans video unless for technical reasons a phone conference is necessary. Attorneys appearing by alternative means, or having client appear by alternative means, must notify the department via email at least one judicial day before the appearance, except in case of an emergency. The attorney must provide email addresses for all persons making an appearance so the department can provide a link for the appearance. Probation officers may similarly contact departments to request a link to appear via video. If arrangements need to be made on shorter notice, the judicial department must be contacted by phone.
For domestic (divorce and custody) cases, if the judge intends to hear a matter, the judicial department will contact attorneys or self-represented litigants two judicial days before the hearing to determine which method of appearance the party intends to use an gather the appropriate contact information to arrange for the appearance by alternative means because of Covid 19.
For dependency cases and delinquency cases, all appearances by alternative mean by attorneys and out-of-custody parties will be through BlueJeans video unless for technical reasons a phone conference is necessary. Attorneys appearing by alternative means or having clients/witnesses/agency representatives/probations officers appear by alternative means, must notify the department via email at least one judicial day before the appearance, except in case of an emergency. The attorney must provide emails for all persons making an appearance so the department can provide a link for the appearance. If arrangements need to be made on shorter notice, the judicial department must be contacted by phone.
The Rosenblum Allen Law Firm, serving Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Centennial Hills, Clark County, and Nye County, is the firm that individuals and businesses alike count on to handle their litigation.
